The Story of Dayuma

By Colin Harbinson

The story that inspired the stage production In January 1956, word sped
around the world that five missionaries who had ventured deep into the
heart of the Amazon jungle, were out of radio contact with their base.
The wives waited expectantly for the promised communication.

The radio remained silent. The five men lay face down in the Curaray
River, speared to death by the feared Indians they had hoped to reach
with the gospel.

The five men were from different backgrounds. Jim Elliot, a champion
wrestler, had a burning desire to reach the world with the gospel. Nate
Saint, prevented from flying with the US Airforce in World War II, became
a pilot with Missionary Aviation Fellowship. Roger Youderian, crippled
by polio at nine years of age, was decorated for his part in the Battle
of the Bulge. Ed McCully, a star football player, and Pete Fleming a philosophy
major, completed the group.

The Waorani, known to outsiders as Aucas, lived in a stone-age
culture, spearing fish, killing monkeys with their poisonous blow darts
and traveling down river in long dugout canoes. They were feared for their
murderous hostility to foreigners and their own violent lifestyle Every
Auca expected to die one day, speared by his own people.

Because face to face contact was impossible, the men flew over the settlements
in their wood-bee,the name tthe Waorani ave to their
small yellow plane. Nate invented the bucket drop, an ingenious method
of lowering a bucket from a line attached to the plane. The bucket contained
gifts, and eventually a relationship was developed as the
Indians took the contents out and replaced them with gifts of their own.
When they believed the time was right for actual face to face contact,
the
men prayed together and sang a hymn to the tune of Finlandia.

We rest on Thee, our shield and defender, we go not forth alone
against the foe, strong in Thy might, safe in Thy keeping tender, we rest
on Thee, and in Thy name we go.

They landed their plane on a small sandbar they named Palm Beach.
After initial friendly contact, the Aucas returned in force not
to welcome, but to kill.

From what seemed like a total tragedy, God brought about a beautiful
miracle. Dayuma, a young Waorani girl, had run away when her father was
speared to death and her own life had been threatened. At about the same
time, Rachel Saint, the sister of Nate Saint, was called to the mission
field to work with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Rachel, believing that
God had spoken to her about the Waorani, heard about Dayuma and arranged
to meet her at a hacienda in the Andes. So began a friendship that was
to lead them both down an unbelievable path.

Two years after the death of the five men, members of Dayumas family
walked out of the jungle and found her. They asked Dayuma to return to
the tribe. The man who wanted to kill her was now dead, and her mother
still longed each day for her return.

Dayuma went back with them and told the tribe that the men they killed
had been good foreigners. She told them about the true God. The Indians
asked her to bring the white women to the tribe, so that they might learn
more. So it was that Elizabeth Elliot who had lost a husband, and Rachel
Saint who had lost a brother at the hands of the Waorani, went and lived
with them. They were the first outsiders to be accepted by the tribe.
Instead of seeking revenge, they were able to show Gods love and
forgiveness.

Dayuma told the tribe, ...just like you speared the good foreigners,
thats how they killed Jesus, Gods good son. Gikita,
the leader of the Palm Beach killers responded, ...not understanding
I killed, but Jesus blood has washed my heart clean -- I used to
hate, but now my heart is healed.

Another of the killers prayed, ...we shall see them again in the
hut you are thatching for us in the sky, and seeing them, we will be happy.

One by one the Indians began giving their lives to Christ, and the Waorani
church was born. They met each day in Gods speaking house.
Rachel and Dayuma taught them from the Bible, which they called Gods
carving. Seven years after the Palm Beach killings,
Dyumi, one of the young Waorani men, said that God had shown him to go
to the down river people. The others told him he would be killed. He replied,
It is God who sends me and I will goif I die, my body will
be buried and my soul will go to Gods house. Then God will send
someone else, as he sent someone else to us after we
speared the foreigners.

The wheel had gone full circle and the Waorani church had become a missionary
church. Since those early beginnings, there has been progress, and inevitable
problems. But, from those five seeds planted in the Amazon jungle, has
come forth fruit that only eternity will reveal. Many Christians have
been challenged to a deeper walk with God and others have been propelled
into mission work through the inspiration of the five men and their total
commitment to God.

The creator of the stage show, Dayuma, has flown into the
tribe to see the situation firsthand. He met with Dayuma herself and was
taken down river by the Waorani in a dugout canoe to the place where the
men were killed. Standing beside the common grave of the five missionaries,
in the heart of the Amazon jungle, he had the deep conviction that God
has not finished with their story yet!